OT: Incurable pedantry (Was: Emphasis on proper address...)

[amiabledorsai]

No: HPFGUIDX 131485

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "jlv230" <jlv230 at y...> wrote:
> > > Dung:
> > > Absolutely no offence meant, but there is NO SUCH WORD AS 
> > > IRREGARDLESS.  You mean irrespective or regardless.
> > > Sorry. I'll get me coat.
> > 
> > Amiable Dorsai:
> > Sure there is: it's right here in my "Webster's New International
> > Dictionary" (2nd ed.)--right between "irrefutability" and
> > "irregeneracy".  Webster doesn't seem to care for it much, but
> > there it is.
> > 
> > Of course, you have an unalienable right to your opinion.
> 
> Ah, a descriptivist, prescripivist debate. 
<Snip a lot of interesting stuff>

> "[A] The word is thoroughly and consistently condemned in all
> American references I can find. But it's also surprisingly common. 
> It's formed from regardless by adding the negative prefix ir-; as
> regardless is already negative, the word is considered a logical
> absurdity.

I tend toward the prescriptivist viewpoint myself. I mostly wanted to
make the "unalienable right" joke (which is probably only funny to an
American, and not all of us).  I don't care for "irregardless", either.

But it's way too late in the day to demand consistent logic from English.

Amiable Dorsai